Ethel's Woods near Antioch was considered a gem of a piece of land in 2001 when it was purchased by the Lake County Forest Preserves — so much so that it was named after the woman who kick-started the referendum drive to create the forest preserve district in 1958, Ethel Untermyer.

Now public access is coming soon to the 500-acre parcel after the forest preserves commissioners approved a $824,522 contract last week with Campanella & Sons of Wadsworth to build trails and parking off Miller Road just east of Route 45.

Plans call for a 25-vehicle parking lot, 1.5 miles of trails and two scenic overlooks of the old Rasmussen Lake and winding North Mill Creek, which has been restored back to a stream corridor in a separate project.

"The combination of the site's massive woodland and its serpentine-shaped lake offers a picturesque landscape reminiscent of a Northwood's setting," reads the description on the forest preserve's website.

Linda Pedersen, forest preserve commissioner for District 1 in the Antioch area, remembers the land well, because her family lived next to it and they used it for hayrides for a number of years.

"It's absolutely gorgeous. It's a beautiful piece of property," Pedersen said of woodland, which includes 170 acres of century-old bur oak, white oak, shagbark hickory and black walnut trees on its eastern edge.

With man-made Rasmussen Lake drained from 58 acres to 14 acres and a new natural stream bed for North Mill Creek being constructed, there is a lot to look forward to.

"They've done a wonderful job with it. I'm excited about it, and it's been a very long time coming," she said. "It's going to be a beautiful forest preserve."

Lake County Forest Preserves

Ethel's Woods near Antioch includes two Advanced Identification (ADID) wetlands bordering the high-quality North Old Mill Creek stream corridor and the several creeks that flow there.

Ethel's Woods near Antioch includes two Advanced Identification (ADID) wetlands bordering the high-quality North Old Mill Creek stream corridor and the several creeks that flow there.

(Lake County Forest Preserves)

Randy Seebach, director of planning and land preservation for the forest preserves, said the access work must be completed by the end of 2019 because the district received a $2 million Open Land Trust grant distributed by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources to purchase the property for $13.3 million back in 2001.

"There are three projects happening out there. One is the restoration work on the stream and lake, second is public access and the third is the access tunnel," he said, referring to a proposed tunnel under Route 45 near Miller Road that would connect to the Raven Glen Forest Preserve to the west. Engineering for that starts this year with the district hoping to apply for a grant in 2019.

Leslie Berns, landscape ecologist with the forest preserves, said the district is starting on the second phase of the restoration project after taking out an old dam for the lake, which was something that was debated back in 2007 — save it, at a cost of about $10 million with regular maintenance costs, or spend about $6 million to restore it and leave it alone.

According to Berns, the lake was ranked second to last in quality out of all the lakes in the county, which number over 100.

"It was really poor quality. It was filled with sediment and wasn't very deep and always brown," she said. Both fish and mussels were recovered after the water was drawn down. Work on the second phase concentrates on the North Mill Creek restoration.

"The stream-bed restoration will pretty much do what a natural stream does, with ponds and riffles. There will be no man-made structures," she said. Instead, grading and natural items like fallen logs and gravel will be used.

"It's designed to look like it was never man-made," Berns added. The district received a $1 million Clean Water Act grant from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency for the work.

She said the forest on the eastern edge of the stream restoration is the largest oak stand in northern Lake County, with only the Ryerson and MacArthur Woods forest preserves in the southern part of the county being larger.

"The woodlands do have some threatened and endangered plants," she said.

Forest Preserve President Ann Maine said officials were excited to begin construction of the trail and public access because the woman the preserve is named for started the grassroots effort that created the district. Ethel Untermyer began the campaign because her son, Frank, wanted a place to play in the woods.

"I think Ethel would be pleased to see us continue to realize her vision of protecting large natural spaces and making them accessible to the people of Lake County," Maine said in a statement announcing the project.

Michael Budrys / Chicago Tribune

Ethel Untermyer visiting the Ryerson Woods Conservation area in Riverwoods in 1995. Ethel's Woods, Lake County's new forest preserve, was named for Untermyer, who died in 2009.

Ethel Untermyer visiting the Ryerson Woods Conservation area in Riverwoods in 1995. Ethel's Woods, Lake County's new forest preserve, was named for Untermyer, who died in 2009. (Michael Budrys / Chicago Tribune)